Far-Off Gods
by rationalbookworm
Summary: AU. Hodr thought he was alone. How wrong he was. Used to be part of my deleted story Mythos. Oneshot.


**If you recognize this, that's because this used to be part of my multi-chapter story Mythos, but after a long debate I decided not to continue that story, and delete it. These were really the only parts I seriously regretted not keeping so I'm posting them separately. As for the rest, I just really didn't like where I was going with it, the writing was actually not that great, and I couldn't seem to get my muse in line for it. I might try to re-write it later, but for now, this is all there's gonna be. Sorry to disappoint anyone. I know there was a few people who seemed to really like it, but I didn't and since I was the one writing it, that was a big issue.**

Bitterly cold wind bit at his exposed flesh as he jogged lightly through the desolate forest, snow crunching beneath his boots with every step. His breath came out in white puffy clouds, each exhale floating up around his head before dissipating into the winter wind. He was sweaty and grimy from battle, blood coated his skin in the most uncomfortable places and gore splattered across his breastplate. Even the dark tangled beard was matted with the remains of his so-called enemy. The moment the dust had settled and he'd been given leave, he'd run out of there, desperate to be away from the horrors of what he and the others had done. God of the cold and dark he may be, but he was hardly a warrior. He had answered the call to war like every other Norse God, but that didn't mean he enjoyed a minute of it. He'd be much better off once Odin and Zeus got their heads out of their asses and realized how ridiculous this war really was. A war that started over nothing more than rumors of one or both of them sleeping with the other's wife. They were both players of the grandest kind and every being on Earth and in the Heavens knew this. It was insane to sacrifice lives for something they had both been doing for years. Hodr was fairly certain there were ulterior motives coming into play, but to voice those opinions could be called treason, so he wisely kept his head down and continued to do his duty until he was no longer needed and free to go on his own way.

Until then, Hodr had a limited amount of time to get cleaned up and relaxed before he was called to arms once more. He intended to use that time in a small cabin located far enough away from the prying humans and nosey Gods that he'd be completely alone for the first time in months. Just what he needed. Before the war with the Greeks, Hodr had always wandered off alone for long stretches of time, his ability to chill a room just by entering it making him a bit of a loner. But now, what with constantly being housed with his brothers-and-sisters-in-arms he felt like he could never find a moment for himself. He was desperate for some silence, even if it meant cutting himself off from the rest of the world entirely for as long as possible.

A grin slowly spread across his haggard face as the small cabin (really it was more of a hut but he didn't need much on his own) came into view. His sanctuary. Peace and quiet and solitude wrapped up in one tiny building. Thank the Heavens no one else knew of this place.

Or so he thought.

A crash echoed from inside, followed by a feminine shriek – and not the happy kind. Hodr froze just within the tree line, dark eyes scanning the area for signs of an ambush, his war-ridden instincts kicking in and telling him not to enter his hidden home until he was sure he could get the upper hand if or when necessary. The forest around him was silent as if sensing the danger nearby. A set of footprints led from the other edge of the trees to the door of the cabin, a long track running alongside them as if the person had dragged something with them. A cold lump of dread settled in Hodr's stomach as his mind began to put two and two together. Hunching over to hopefully keep himself hidden as long as he could, he hurried closer to the cabin, stopping under the small solitary window beside the front door. He could see now that the prints in the snow were that of a man's. This was only confirmed when a deep baritone drifted through the cracked window.

"Why are you fighting this?" the man asked, sighing in exasperation.

"Oh what?" a female answered bitingly. "I should just lay here and let you have your way is that it?" Hodr tensed, his hand automatically going to the sword at his hip. It seemed he was destined to shed some more blood tonight. "I don't care if your wife is cheating on you with a thousand men! You will _not_ have me!"

The man sighed again, "I'm afraid you have little choice in the matter."

The sound of a fight broke out suddenly and Hodr wasted no time jumping up and ramming into the door, causing it to slam into the wall before breaking off the hinges and dropping to the dusty floor. His eyes quickly drank in the scene before him. A small slip of a woman was huddled in the corner, valiantly fighting off her attacker, enormous by any standards, made even worse by the golden garbs signifying him as one of the Gods – a Greek no less. Hodr saw red. For a man of his standing to be attacking a woman in the middle of nowhere, using his wife's debauchery and (no doubt) the war as an excuse…Hodr would be damned if he would sit by and let this happen.

Lunging forward, his free hand grabbed hold of the God's long tangled black hair and yanked him off the woman so hard he nearly took out a wall. As it was, there would now be a lovely Greek God imprint in the wood. He took a moment to assess the woman's injuries and started when he realized she too had on the God's golden robes. He quickly shook off his shock. Goddess or human, it was wrong to attack a female and he wouldn't stand for it. Especially not in his home.

Before he could truly get a good look at her, however, he felt himself being lifted and tossed outside like a rag doll. The snow did nothing to cushion his fall, the impact just as painful as if he'd landed on hard ground. Luckily the cold never penetrated very deep, or he'd be freezing to death as well seeing as the snow that had flown upwards on impact nearly buried him when gravity took hold. He sat up, quickly unearthing himself as the God (he really didn't care which one it was) came thundering out of the cabin, a war cry filling the air. Hodr sneered, jumping to his feet as he brought his sword back up and shifted into a fighting stance. The Greek barreling toward him seemed to be all rage, no tact whatsoever. It was a simple matter of ducking around the meaty fists and bringing his sword around at the right moments and right angles. He'd never been one for strategy or war, merely following the orders his superiors gave him, but he suddenly felt a flow of understanding for both as he moved forward to attack. His mind easily supplied what needed to be done to end this quickly and before long the Greek was lying on the ground, the snow around him steadily growing red as he drowned in his own blood.

Hodr took a moment to wipe his sword clean before turning toward the cabin only to freeze as he noticed for the first time that the Goddess had followed them out, stepping barefoot into the snow, her golden robes billowing around her slightly in the chilly wind. He noticed she was taller than he thought when she was cowering from the monster of a God he'd just slain, her head held high with calm confidence despite the cut on her forehead only just beginning to stop bleeding. Bruises in the shape of handprints tainted her arms and she sported a split lip and black eye. Still, Hodr couldn't help but note her beauty. Long raven hair fell in perfect disarray around her shoulders and wide dark eyes steadily gazed at him, not flinching from his surely hellish appearance. Her skin was flawless porcelain, flushed from the cold and her lips were plump and pink. Hodr found himself nervously licking his own chapped lips as he slowly approached her, not wanting to scare her.

"It seems I owe you a debt of gratitude," she said quietly, though her voice rang with an authority that refused to be dismissed.

"You owe me nothing," he assured her gruffly. It would only be a complication to have a Greek feel indebted to him.

She tilted her head, studying him, "And yet you have it."

He sighed, letting it go for now. This woman seemed stubborn and he didn't have the energy for a verbal battle after the day he'd had. "You should go inside before you freeze. It's about to snow again."

She tilted her head back to look at the darkening sky and Hodr winced at the now unobstructed view of her bruises as her hair fell away. It seemed she'd been nearly strangled as well. "I should return to Olympus before I am missed." She sighed as she eyed the body. "And Aphrodite should know about this. There's no love lost between the two, but he was still her husband."

Hodr turned back to the body, information coming back to him from the time when relations between the Greeks and the Norse Gods were better and he'd had to learn all the political standings in order to not make a fool of himself at the mandatory meetings. Aphrodite's husband was Hephaestus, the God of fire and the forge. It was well known that Aphrodite, Goddess of beauty, love, and desire, often cheated on him simply because of his deformity. It seemed the poor man had finally snapped. Unfortunately for him, he snapped in the wrong place. Hodr still firmly believed he had no right to attack the Goddess before him.

He looked back at the Goddess, noticing anew how disheveled she looked. If she returned to Olympus like that, he doubted anyone would believe that she got away in time. His stomach twisted with the thought of what would have happened if he'd arrived just a second later. "Come inside," he reiterated, his tone implying he wasn't taking no for an answer. "Warm up. Clean up a bit. You don't want to worry anyone by looking like that, do you?" Okay, so he was being a bit crass, but he didn't think she'd listen any other way.

She quirked an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth twitching up, "What are you saying, exactly? Is there something wrong with how I look?"

Hodr fought a smile at the teasing lilt the conversation had taken. It seemed she wasn't offended by his frank comment, so he'd try again. "You look like hell. Get inside."

She threw her head back as a laugh was ripped from her, "Have you looked in a mirror?" She continued to chuckle, but turned back to the relative warmth of the cabin. It was warmer than out in the open anyway.

He followed her in, feeling more light than he had in a long time. The only time he spent around others lately was when they were preparing for battle, and then was hardly time to joke. It felt nice to let his guard down a little and simply enjoy another's company. He wasn't a social creature by nature, but even he needed someone occasionally. This Goddess may be a Greek and therefore an enemy by default, but they had been brought together by fate and bonded over horrible circumstances and for the time being, he knew he could trust her. At least until she returned to her people and him to his.

Once inside, Hodr picked up the broken door and replaced it, hoping it would at least keep out some of the chill. For her. He never felt the cold. Turning, he found the Goddess crouched in front of the small fireplace he never used, lighting the wood he couldn't recall bringing in. When she glanced up at him she smiled sheepishly.

"I stumbled across this place a while ago after a particularly bad battle. I was wounded badly and needed a place to lie low for a while. No one seemed to be using it. I thought it was abandoned."

He nodded in understanding, lowering himself onto the pile of furs that made up his bed. It was across the small room from her, hopefully giving her enough space so as to make his true intentions clear and not freeze her with the natural chill that always rolled off him in waves. "I've hardly had opportunity to use it since the war broke out. But why were you here now? And, more importantly, why was Hephaestus?"

She exhaled loudly, her sharp eyes studying him for a long minute before she answered, "I didn't intend on coming here at all, merely passed by on my way…I can't explain. It involves some very…sensitive information."

He nodded in understanding as she paused, gesturing for her to continue.

"As for Hephaestus, he followed me. It seems he caught his wife with another God earlier today and was in a bit of a blind rage."

He scoffed, "A bit?"

Her lips curled up slightly as she settled back more comfortably against the fireplace, the glow of the fire casting shadows across her features. "Okay, maybe more than a bit."

He scoffed again, rolling his eyes.

She giggled, shaking her head at him, "Honestly, he and I never got along well and I had already angered him earlier this week…" she trailed off, shrugging.

"That's hardly an excuse for what he did," Hodr bit out angrily. Was she really trying to defend him?

"No, it's not. But I'm sure that was his reasoning. What little he had, anyway."

He sighed, deciding to drop the subject. It hardly mattered now. He motioned to the second door in the room, "The wash room is through there if you wish to clean up. Though I warn you, the water is probably freezing."

She smirked as she stood, "I would expect no less from Hodr, God of all things cold and dark."

His eyebrows shot up to his hairline, "You know who I am?"

"I figured it out," she shrugged. "It wasn't too difficult."

Glancing around the place he supposed she was right. It was rather dark and cold in here, as it always was and always would be. "And you are?"

She paused on the threshold of the washroom, looking over a slim shoulder, "You don't know?"

Honestly, he hadn't even thought about it. "No."

She simply smiled and closed the door behind her. Clearly she wanted him to figure it out on his own. Insufferable woman. He grinned.

After she quickly made herself more presentable, it was Hodr's turn to wash up. It took considerably longer for him to wash off all the blood that had now dried to almost every part of his exposed body. He tore off his breastplate, tossing it into the corner to clean and polish later. When he'd gotten as clean as possible, his skin rubbed raw, he stayed hunched over the wash basin, unable to raise his head and look himself in the eye. After everything he'd done, all the people he'd harmed, he found it hard to look at himself. Perhaps after the war, after he had time to heal. But for now, he refused to see the monster he'd turned into.

"Everything alright in there?" a female voice called teasingly through the door with just a small edge of worry, snapping him back to reality.

Without answering, he opened the door, stepping back into the main room. She was closer than he'd thought, causing her to stumble back to get out of his way. Automatically, he reached out to steady her, his large hands wrapping around her slim waist and tugging her upright again. Her hands fell naturally to his bare shoulders, bracing herself. She blinked up at him in shock but neither stepped back, their faces mere inches from each other. He could feel her hot breath ghost across his neck and shivered at the feeling. The cold was so much a part of him that he often forgot what it felt to really feel warmth, but never had he hungered for it as he did in that moment. Every part of the Goddess that touched him seemed to sear into him, marking him, and he knew he'd never be able to forget this feeling. A connection seemed to grow, bonding him to her irrevocably, but instead of worrying him like he knew it should, he simply felt at peace. He sighed, gripping her tighter, not wanting to let go ever again. One of her small hands reached up, cupping his cheek and he felt the burn follow. He nuzzled her palm, tangling his straggly beard in her fingers.

"Athena," she whispered. "I'm Athena."

* * *

The cold hard stone cut into her back painfully, the only tangible thing Athena could grasp onto in the black surrounding her. She stared unseeingly straight ahead at where she knew a door stood, trying desperately not to hear the howls of agony echoing in the air. Part of her was bitterly mad for being thrown in prison by her own people. Did they not know there was a war? Did they not realize her strategies were what helped keep them alive until now? Being led blindly by Ares was going to kill them. That man was all attack and no tact. But the larger, less emotional side of her knew exactly why she was here and she couldn't blame them, especially Aphrodite, even if she disagreed with their logic. Hephaestus was the one who dragged her into that cabin and tried to molest her. He was the one who attacked Hodr. The Norse was only trying to protect her. That was why she had gifted him, briefly, with her understanding of strategy in battle. She was certain he hadn't even noticed she'd done it, and yet she was being punished. Punished for fraternizing with the enemy.

She had not been able to help herself. When he'd stepped out of the wash room, tiny streams of water still running down his bare chest, and nearly knocked her to the floor, when he caught her, all she could feel was a warm pulse shoot through her body and an undeniable need to be near him, damn the consequences. So she had. She had spent the entire night simply lying in Hodr's arms, tracing nonsensical patterns into his skin and enjoying whispered conversation about nothing and everything. Never had she felt so complete. And never had it felt so difficult to remove herself from her newfound sanctuary at first light and rejoin her comrades on Olympus.

Comrades who, upon hearing her news, were out for blood. Especially Ares, unsurprisingly. She barely got them to calm down long enough to convince them going after Hodr was a bad idea. Of course, then they turned on her, calling her a traitor for siding with the enemy. All the voices shouting at her quickly made her frustrated and flustered, unable to get a word in. Some Goddess of Wisdom she turned out to be. She deeply regretted the words that tumbled out of her mouth then. All her secret feelings for the Norse God falling unstoppable from her lips as wide eyes stared at her in shock. That was when they unanimously decided to toss her into prison, at least until Zeus was present to decide her fate. Aphrodite's wide-eyed understanding was the one thing Athena had been able to latch onto as they dragged her away. The love Goddess stayed behind, a deep sadness and compassion directed at the newly exiled Goddess that eased some of the pain of being ousted by her friends and family.

Another bloodcurdling scream jolted Athena to the present, back to her dark cell and shivering body. She choked on the stale air, trying to calm her racing heart. It would not do to panic, not now, when she had been doing so well. She had shown no fear when Ares tossed her in by her hair, grinning evilly the whole way. Had stayed completely stoic when she was stripped of her golden robes and left naked in the dirt covering stone floors. Had shown no emotion whatsoever at being left alone to listen to her fellow prisoners being tortured for hours on end for who knew how many days. To break down her carefully pieced together mask now would be inexcusable.

Suddenly the darkness was pierced by a tiny sliver of light, preluded by the ominous creak of the door hinges. It was quickly covered by a shadow passing through the small opening and the door shut quietly once more. The silence that followed seemed to press in on Athena's eardrums, broken only by the even breaths coming from across the small room. Slowly, so as not to startle the newcomer into action, the Goddess used the wall to push herself to her feet, eyes wide in a feeble attempt to catch movement.

"Who are you?" she spoke in a stronger tone than she thought herself capable of. What she wouldn't give to have Hodr near, her savior and protector. She wished she could see him, hold him, at least once more.

"We must hurry," an unmistakable voice answered, disregarding her question entirely.

"Aphrodite? Why? Why would you help me?"

She took a shaky, deep breath, "I have known you, Athena, for centuries. Not once have I seen in you what I did when you talked of your Hodr. I haven't seen such love and devotion from one God to another in a long time."

Athena slumped against the wall, "What does it matter? I won't be able to find him. He's with his people now. It's too dangerous for us to be together."

"That's where you're wrong." A shuffling sound was the only warning that the other Goddess was moving before a slim, delicate hand was placed on her bare upper arm. "He is here. After you were taken away, I did everything I could to contact him. Luckily no one was watching me closely, thinking I was mourning for my husband. I'm just sorry it took so long."

"How long?" Athena swallowed around the lump in her throat. Hodr was here? How? How had he not been caught? Dear Zeus, if he was caught… "How long have I been down here?"

Aphrodite hesitated a moment, "Long enough." There was a quiet rustle and light and airy fabric was draped over Athena's shoulders to cover her modesty. "Now, we have to go. Hodr is waiting for you."


End file.
